Self-Disclosure Valence on Facebook: Effects on Social Attractiveness and User Reactions

With the growing popularity of social media, people are sharing more personal information online. This study explored how online self-disclosure post valence (positive vs. negative) affects participants' willingness to interact with the discloser. In a between-subjects online experiment, 382 CloudResearch participants were randomly assigned to view either positive or negative fictitious Facebook self-disclosure status updates. Participants rated the social attractiveness of the discloser and reported their reactions to the posts. As predicted, they perceived the positive discloser as more socially attractive. Additionally, they were more likely to react to positive posts and ignore negative posts. Specifically, participants were more likely to react to the positive self-discloser with a like/emoji. However, they were more willing to private message the negative self-discloser. The perceived social attractiveness of the discloser mediated the relationship between post valence and participants' willingness to ignore or react to the posts. Our results suggest that, compared with negative self-disclosers, positive self-disclosers may receive more public reactions to their posts because they are perceived as more socially attractive. Despite being perceived as less socially attractive, participants reported a higher willingness to private message the negative self-discloser, which we believe indicates their will to help. The results of the study provide further insight into computer-mediated communication norms and suggest that the valence of self-disclosures may elicit different reactions.